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“The Chinese have all these new high-rises?” Badde said, his tone not concealing his surprise. “I thought the yellow rose had something to do with Texas.”

“It does,” Garcia said. “The Texas War of Independence. It’s legendary. There was even a hit song in the 1950s about it. Mitch Miller’s ‘Yellow Rose of Texas.’”

“So then what’s the connection with the flower?” Badde said.

Garcia looked toward the bar. “See that long-legged filly in the tight black dress? One of the three we saw earlier?”

Badde stole a look, then turned back to Garcia. “Oh, yeah. Beautiful woman. That creamy light chocolate skin is incredible.”

“In the day, that was called ‘high yellow.’ Legend is that a high yellow mulatto by the name of Emily West—she was an indentured servant who got herself captured when the Mexican army took Galveston in 1836—seduced General Santa Anna. My mother’s side of the family is descended from Santa Anna, which makes this story not one of our prouder moments.”

“What was wrong with being seduced?”

“The problem was Santa Anna became so enamored with the beautiful half-breed that her distraction allowed General Sam Houston’s Texas Army to win the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. And ol’ Sam trounced Santa Anna. It was really an ass-kicking—the whole thing lasted only eighteen minutes. When the dust settled, six hundred Mexicans were dead. That’s—what?—more than thirty killed every minute. Houston lost only nine men. Santa Anna was taken

prisoner and, being president of Mexico, signed a peace treaty. And so began the Republic of Texas—thanks to the Yellow Rose of Texas.”

“Damn!” Badde said, impressed. “The power of . . . women, huh?”

Garcia and Santos chuckled.

Santos said: “That the company name, as you note, Rapp, suggests local ownership doesn’t exactly hurt, either.”

Garcia nodded. “Right. And as I was saying, in addition to this development, there are twenty-five Yellowrose luxury hotels and resorts around the world. New York City, London, Paris, Tahiti, the Caribbean, Uruguay, Cabo San Lucas. This Dallas complex was in part financed with EB-5 funding that we at OneWorld put together. Every worker here counts toward the jobs needed to qualify.”

Badde glanced around the room, nodding appreciatively.

“For securing the approval of Immigration Services,” Santos said, “which designated OneWorld an elite regional center because of our history with them, we get a transaction fee of ten percent. Plus of course management fees for the investment vehicles themselves.”

Rapp Badde picked up his drink and sipped as he started to do the math. Feeling the effects of the alcohol, he gave up calculating after coming up with a hundred thousand for each million dollars invested.

If a building gets a hundred million, their cut is a cool mil just in fees.

Who knows what they bring in for management fees . . . ?

“Rapp,” Mike Santos said, “when Bobby here said earlier that we know where to find money, he wasn’t kidding. We have a long list of investors in our various funds. Among them are those already preapproved by the Immigration Service for EB-5 visas.”

“More than two thousand waiting,” Bobby Garcia added. “And another thousand in the process leading up to preapproval. Our goal is to use up all those ten thousand available visas before anyone else.”

“What’s the holdup?” Badde said.

“We need approved projects. Immigration Services has to sign off on the investments to ensure that the jobs are in fact created. You happen to know anyone who might be looking to build something?”

Badde looked between Santos and Garcia, then grinned broadly, flashing his bright white-capped teeth.

I could tear down all of North Philly and build new!

“Like maybe a new hotel?” he said, then held up his cocktail glass.

Garcia and Santos touched theirs to it.

“Rapp, assuming the project meets requirements,” Santos said, “and from what I’ve seen, it does, we’re prepared to put up a hundred mil, for starters. How does that sound?”

Badde looked between them for a moment, then smiled.

“I’d say it sounds like a deal.”

“All right. Let’s talk about something more interesting!” Santos announced, then glanced at the bar ringed with women.